Shawn Jeppson came off the bench to match his career high with 19 points, and
Cedric Knight
hit a pair of key baskets late in the game to give Illinois State the lead to stay as the Redbirds topped Southwest Missouri State on the road, 64-60.
ISU earned its biggest edge of the game, 47-40 at the 9:45 mark of the second half on
Randy Rices second three-point basket of the season. SMS started hacking away with a Robert Yanders jumper that started a 12-4 run, which Yanders finished with a pair of free throws to put the Bears ahead 53-52 with 4:35 left.
Then Knight, a freshman, muscled up. His power move put the Birds back on top 53-52 half a minute later, and his tip-in at the 3:00 mark gave ISU a three-point cushion. From there, the Redbirds kept SMS at arms length with patient offense, pressure defense and 9 of 10 free throws by four different players.
ISU led 61-55 edge after
Tarise Brysons two free throws at the one-minute mark but Daniel Novaks three-pointer cut that lead in half. The Birds nearly ran the shot clock out before SMS got possession on a turnover, giving Novak a chance to tie with another three-point shot.
But Bryson pressured Novaks shot, Jeppson got his team-high sixth rebound of the game and was fouled with nine seconds left. An 89 percent foul shooter who made 16 straight earlier this season, Jeppson drained a pair and ISU had the necessary cushion to win.
Jeppson got scoring help from Bryson, who shot a frigid 4 of 14 from the field and whose 14 points were six short of his league-leading 20.6 per game. That didnt bother ISU coach
Tom Richardson
Tarise struggled a bit to score, said Richardson. But I thought we rebounded a bit better in the second half. They only had three offensive rebounds in the second half, and Jeppson, Rice,
Shedrick Ford and Bryson all stepped up and hit big free throws down the stretch.
The Redbirds, 10-2 overall, 2-1 in the Valley, equalled their 1999-2000 win total before reaching the half-way mark in the 2000-2001 season, hit nine of 10 free throws for their final nine points and won with their second lowest team score of the season. The sometimes sloppy play featured 31 turnovers, 18 by SMS.
Richardson didnt care about style points.
The game might have been ugly, but a road win is always pretty, said Richardson, whose team shot 46 from the field to the Bears 44.4.
The Bears, 5-8, 1-3, lost at home to the Redbirds for the first time in five years despite a 35-24 team rebounding edge. Yanders and Mike Wallace led the SMS with 14 points each. Novak added 13.
SMSs biggest lead was 19-12 at the 12-minute mark in the first half before Jeppson took over. He scored 13 points in the next 11 minutes to help the Redbirds lead 34-31 at the intermission.
Illinois State plays Sunday at Southern Illinois.
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